Chapter 3 Advancing

I grunt and suppress a wince as I hit the ground. The damn wings are still throwing off my balance. While I appreciate just how invested Yesk is making up powerful the half-dragon template she recently added to most of us is taking some adjustment.

It was even worse considering I wasn't fully grown. New appendages on top of being in the middle of the awkward gangly teenager phase means I trip. A lot.

Which is why I'm training so furiously with the Sivs. Convincing Yesk to shelter them had been one of my better ideas. They had gone from hunted scavengers to devoted retainers remarkably easily. Especially since they had been the first ones to have the template rituals tested on.

While I had looked at them as test subjects and servants before I have a much better appreciation for them now. If it was one thing Daggerford had taught me, it was that numbers matter.

I was incredibly powerful. I was also limited in how fast I could kill my enemies. Outside of small groups I just couldn't be in enough places. I had grown careless. The death of my sibling reinforced the lesson. I can die if I'm careless and I want to avoid death.

Even if I end up in Errylliss' domain in the afterlife I wouldn't be happy. Soul larva are helpless and every other form souls take in the afterlife loses the bulk of their memories. I was going to need more than personal power.

While is why while both the druid trainees took the greenbound template from my group, I became a half dragon. All the Sivs had taken greenbound and truthfully I was tempted too as well. The serenity granted from becoming closer to nature made the monk training much easier. In the end though I wanted magic. Only magic would allow me to generate the numbers I need. And dragon blood will grant me access to it.

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I was a bit sad that I was going to be alone in both my career paths. My siblings found training to be a monk hard. The discipline needed didn't come to them naturally. Paradoxically they were intimidated at how quickly I learned and didn't want to be horribly overshadowed.

And arcane magic wasn't even an option for any of us originally. Even now that it is possible they had all found the combat roles they were comfortable in and no inclination to switch.

A secure shelter and ample food that allowed them to specialize. Instead of all of us being forced to hunt and possess considerable wilderness lore my clutch mates took on more exotic roles.

Most of them took to divine magic. Raxl and Ocuugi were being trained as clerics, following in Yesk's footsteps. Jursa, Irsiros and Hess were training as druids due to some kind of deal Yesk had made. Since they were training to support me I didn't mind. Besides druidic magic can be very powerful.

The rest trained with weapons. Kodrih and Thriz took to spear and shield fighting. They eagerly absorbed everything I could remember about phalanx's and shield walls. They were going to be the obvious tanks for the group.

Bhaoozk, with his explosive temper, was much harder to train. While his ability to train his rage made him a natural barbarian the problem was endurance. And after losing a sibling there was no way I was going to be able to steer him in another direction. Not being able to maintain his rage war a problem although I had some ideas on how to fix that eventually.

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Yesk had definitely gotten paranoid about us. Besides the templates she had also summoned numerous outsiders to train us. She was also summoning more to collect the items she needed to craft the magic items she wanted to equip us with. The sheer number of summoning and deals she made was reckless. As I watched her continue I made my decision.

I wasn't willing to risk losing everything by drawing too much attention. So we were moving.

Scouting sections of the Lizard Marsh was fairly easy for us since we had wings. We could fly high overhead and take our time looking over areas. Since I was so much faster I made a number of solo runs deep into the swamp.

The layout of the swamp wasn't what I expected. Small islands of various sizes were divided by countless small slow moving streams. Seeing how I needed numbers and how well Yesk had raised my clutch I decided to expand.

It was surprisingly easy. Five hundred square miles sounds like a lot. But when you can maintain a flight speed of 24 miles per hour it only takes an hour or two to cross the entire swamp. I make sure to carefully map out every lizardfolk camp I find.

I bring my siblings along for the assaults. We drop from the sky like meteors. Just before I land I flare my wings, stalling for a second. In that moment I lash out, striking with every appendage I had. All four of my targets crumple to the ground.

I'm vaguely aware of my siblings landing even as I charge into the next group. A jump, twist and I kick out shattering a shield and the arm holding it. My tail snaps a neck snaps his neck even as my hands cut two throats. My wings flash out, casually deflecting a spear and throwing the warrior back. And suddenly I'm left standing on top of a pile of groaning bodies.

There isn't any other large groups so I just make sure none of my siblings are in danger. The camp wasn't very large so it only takes another minute to finish off everyone. The only survivors are a group of females we intend to take captive.

Each of us grabs one, although I take two. Given the weakest of us had a strength score well in the thirties we easily fly off while carrying them. Not that we had to carry them far.

Yesk was already hard at work creating walls of stone to build our new base. We protect her while she pretty much exhausts herself each day working on the compound, easily throwing back the few raids that occur. Afterwards we spiral outwards wiping out every lizardfolk camp we can find while Yesk continues expanding the defenses and the Siv start transporting everything from the old compound.

With the largest camps destroyed I head east. We need an ogre for the breeding program and I'm much faster alone.

It takes some time even with Yesk's divination amulet to guide me. It probably didn't help I was picky. I was only going to be able to bring back a single ogre. I wanted the most impressive specimen I could get.

It took way too long. I was gone almost an entire week tracking some ogres down. The results were well worth it though. It took me venturing into the High Moors, but I found an entire tribe of ogres.

Time to make an impression. I fold my wings and dive. I aim for the largest ogre. He'll be the chieftain.

I decide to show off so at the last second I angle my wings so I can land on my feet. He barely even started to react when I crouched down, grabbed his head and heaved.

With a wet tearing sound I tear his head off. Even as the body crashes to the ground I hold the head above me and bellow. "You all serve me!"

I aim at the nearest ogre who's holding a weapon. The head slams into him and I follow instantly. Even as he staggers back I dash forwards. My shoulder catches him in the stomach and he folds over my crouched form. I push. He folds over me, blocking two other strikes.

I turn and my hands snap out. I catch the extended arms even as they hit the ogre I'm under. I pull. Twist and heave. The two ogres I grabbed and the one I rammed all go flying.

Nap of my wings and I'm lunging at the next ogre. I punch through his armor. As I spin to dodge another blow I flick the handful of intestines I had grabbed into his face. A hop and twist gives me enough momentum to cave in the chest of another ogre with a kick.

My tail wraps around the blinded ogre, choking him. A roar catches my attention and I see an ogre with a spear charging me. I dodge back and toss the ogre I'm choking. The move breaks his neck even as he's impaled on the spear. Before he could drop it I hurdle over the body. My feet grasp his shoulders as my hands slam onto either side of his helmet. I tear his head off.

When I flip off I'm disappointed to see the rest of the tribe all kneeling on the ground. My blood was pumping and I wanted to keep fighting.

I take a few moments to calm myself. It'd be horrible waste of time to kill them all after I spent so much time looking for them.

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If I thought finding ogres took forever, bringing them back was worse. The ogres were a full tribe so moved slowly. While I had only killed five of them. Two others were too wounded too keep up so I killed them as well. Which still left me with a dozen ogres, even if most of them were children.

Without large stockpiles or the numbers to hunt I was forced to feed them. I also had to protect them. With only three adults and one of them injured the various bandits and monsters could easily kill them all.

Thankfully my two problems solve each other. At least mostly. I make sure to scout ahead each day and as well as all around. I kill everything I come across. Which is mainly orcs, but includes a few elves and barbarians. Then I just feed everything to the ogres.

Despite all the food I provided the ogres did not flourish. I pushed them hard on the march back. I even had them march all night to bypass Daggerford and it's patrols.

In my absence Yesk had finished the compound. Even better she had added all the extras I had asked for. The base was now a massive compound that stretched across multiple islands. It was also divided up into several relatively isolated areas.

One was being used by Yesk and my siblings and another held the Siv families that served us. The captured lizardfolk were housed in another along with a number of eggs and young that had been collected.

Several sections were still empty and I quickly settled the ogres in one of them. With unlimited hydra meat available they should easily flourish.

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Over the next few years I threw myself into my arcane studies. Demons, naga and other summoned servants all tutored me. Sorcery was unlike any portrayal in any of the game editions. Instead it was a lot like preparing for a math test and dance recital at the same time.

Molding the arcane energy always felt just a bit unnatural. Enough so that mastering a particular spell took enormous amounts of practice. I could duplicate nearly any spell I remembered but they much closer to very slow rituals.

Quite possibly due to my mathematical and scientific bent in my past life I created formulas and records for every ritual I managed to create. The majority was based on what I 'knew' would work from my gaming experience.

Sure it may take me anywhere from a several minutes to an hour to complete a ritual, but it vastly increased my options. The majority of the time I let my instincts guide me. My luck seemed to hold true and it wasn't long before I had what I felt was a decent sized private arcane library.

Sadly it was not one that anyone else would find useful. A few naga eggs had been collected by summons and while they were natural sorcerers all of us seemed to have unique methods of wielding our magic. Only the most basic of concepts would be adapted, which meant outside of brainstorming ideas I didn't gain much.

Still at least I now have fellow arcane casters to talk with. And it wasn't like I was bored. It turns out the lizardfolk had ruthlessly kept the local dinosaur population in check. Without them their numbers exploded.

Worse they had kept the worst of them from growing large enough to pose a real threat. Barely a year after setting up we saw the emergence of massive spinosaurs. While it's hunched posture meant it rarely stood higher than twenty feet, they were easily fifty feet long.

Hunting them was exhilarating. There was nothing like the rush of killing something that massive. In some ways it reminded of the giant bosses from games I used to play. Not even with my boosts could to take one on head on. So I used fancy maneuvers and targeted weak points, wearing them down.

And the rush I received whenever I killed one was positively addicting. It was more than the satisfaction of winning. More than adrenaline. It was power. Power pouring into me. Pure potential.

I found I could channel the energy towards strengthening my magic. No doubt it had other uses, but none I considered more worthwhile. My first love was magic and I wanted as much of it as possible. If this is what adventurers feel when they level up I can see why so many take up such a risky career.

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Despite how powerful I grew I mastered very few spells. The sheer amount of effort and more importantly time involve just didn't seem worth it. Instead I invested it all into my rapidly rowing library. There were a number of second edition spells I wanted and with Yesk's willingness to craft I could preserve them all.

In particular I played with metamagic. While second edition doesn't actually have metamagic I still remember the rules well enough since I almost always played casters before.

I didn't care about the mundane static bonuses. I was interested in the exotic effects that allowed for terrifying end results when taken to logical extremes. Like how a pair of explosive lightning bolts would slam into and carry along everyone in their path. Or a persistent creeping cold eventually deals thousands of damage if not countered.

The one I was most interested in though was fell energy. The spinosaurs had given me ideas for giant undead war machines. Skeletons were just too fragile though. A fell energy enhanced desecrate would bolster it's toughness nicely.

In the end I was forced to approach Yesk to help. I needed her aid and more importantly the aid of Essyllis to see exactly just how to adjust the energy. It was fascinating and I ended up spending a lot more time on necromancy than I had planned.

Watching how the energy smoothly divided into delicate strands and literally wove themselves into the bones was inspiring. I couldn't quite manage it myself so I cheated. A focus made from the crystallized heart of a blood fiend gave me the boost needed to replicate the technique.

Even better my research led me into a few dead ends that still provided a similar if lesser boost. The resulting skeletons were amazing. They easily withstood three times as much damage as unenhanced versions.

Now I just need to become powerful enough to actually animate a spinosaurus.

All the experiments took resources. Worse they took onyx, which is not a resource found in swamps. Which is how I ended up tempted into going on an adventure.